I would be SO FREAKED OUT about a gator! I am scared to death of creepy animals and bugs, and snakes and spiders. And a gator is like all of those rolled into one. Yes, I would be scared!!

I would be scared too! My mom lives in Florida and I rarely swim there :0 You’ve made really good points about the gators being scared away – you’ll be fine Caitlin 🙂

Your toasted quinoa looks good though 🙂

that is one of my fears, too, but not just gators. The water in general. I do not really swim in the ocean unless I can hold onto my boyfriend and put my feet over his. I’m scared i’ll shuffle right over a sting ray. It is stupid, but i’m like…ok, i don’t have fins, i was meant to be on land. lol However, in your case, so many people will be swimming and you’re right, they will get scared away. You just have to remind yourself it is in your head, you can do it!

Well at least you can swim, I can’t 😀 I love water, but my biggest fear? Void. And not being able to touch the ground with my feet while being in water is included on the list of “panic-inducing stimuli”. On the same list is not being able to walk on tranparent glass floor and seing what’s beneath it. Strangely enough, I am not scared of the plane, I love it!

So ok let’s assume I could swim, hell yes I would be freaked about about a gator! But as you pointed out, there will be a lot of people, so good chances that the gators will be the ones to freak out!

uh yeah, i would be shitting myself about the gators. you rock! you’re brave and strong and prepared for this!

Lol when I lived in Houston, there was a gator that lived in the pond right behind my house on the golf course. It came right up to our yard sometimes and it was huge!

Don’t let yourself think about it. You’re going to rock this triathlon!

This reminds me of when we lived in Aus and my brother was playing golf with my uncle up in Queensland. His ball went off into some bushes and off he went to retrieve it. Within minutes my bro came scuttling back without the ball deciding to drop a shot instead. Turned out his golf ball was lying right by the head of a very awake CROCODILE!!!!!

I have an irrational fear of balloons and clowns 🙁

I grew up spending time at our cabin in Missouri, where we go through all kinds of phases. My cousin’s yellow lab was killed by a mountain lion in the middle of the night a few years ago, and now we have trouble with wild hogs bigger than my horses. I come from a hunting family, so they love that the wild hogs are always in season, but I get scared on my runs. I’m not sure, but don’t gators stay in shallow water? I honestly have no idea, just a thought!

I’m starting to have anxiety just reading this. Hell yes I would be scared of gators. We talk about moving down there and instantly worry about letting out cats outside for fear of them being eaten by gators. I’d say just concentrate on swimming as fast as possible so you aren’t the last one out there as lonely gator bait. 🙂

My phobias are mostly snakes (oh the dreams I have…) and tornadoes.

I hear you on that! I dislike swimming in the lakes because of the unknown… my husband’s co-worker used to kayak to work on a bayou until one day he was chased by a gator.. he now bikes to work.. lol

Yeah, that would terrify me also. I actually always think about this when you Florida girls talk about your tris. I don’t like lakes anyway because of snakes, but through gators into the mix and you can really count me out. You’ll be great though! Good luck!

Being buried alive is my biggest fear. Or drowning. Anything where you can’t get enough air. And I grew up in upstate NY where all the lakes are swimmable and no one worries about gators. When I moved to FL I was in for a shock! My family and I do go boating/waterskiing/tubing on the Winter Park chain of lakes and have never seen a gator. We figure the rich people pay to keep the gators out. LOL

I would be scared too, but I’m also the person who freaks myself out in the deep end of a pool, so ….
But really, I think you’ll be absolutely fine. The number of people in the water at one time ensures that you’ll always be surrounded by others. Also, I don’t think the race officials would let anyone go into waters that weren’t clear.
I have a fear of bugs. I’m such a baby about them.

I would totally be freaked out!! But there are safety in numbers and like you said…there will be 100 other people with you!! 🙂

I’m terrified of Bananas….. seriously. I watched that movie archanphobia when I was little and all I remember is the spider crawling out from behind bananas and ever since then I’l leat bananas but wont touch them in the skin. I have to get someone else to peel the banana for me.

I’m a freak!

I also dont like swimming in the open water, for the very same reason. But also because I’m not keen on fish either… they all look a bit scary and don’t like the idea of my foot touching one. I went windsurfing in Egypt last year and freaked out when I ended up in open water!

Ciorsdah

I grew up in Central Florida right on a big river that we swam in all the time (that and the ocean) but the river has both gators and sharks because it is brackish. It probably isn’t the most ideal swimming place, but you will still see tons of people there swimming and playing in the water. Anyway, at least it isn’t gator mating season yet. I went to Gatorland once during mating season and they get down right scary! You will be fine, stop googling scary water creatures! Oh and just to add my biggest fear – worms. It is slightly humiliating to say that, but anything worm like makes me want to cry. Snakes don’t bother me, but worms I can’t handle at all. So at least you are worried about something that can actually, you know, bite you.

I made a similar quinoa granola. I didn’t love the way mine turned out, your looks so much better! I’m gonna have to give yours a try.

You’ll be FINE, but I understand where the fear comes from! I’ve been a swimmer my whole life and I am scared of open water. I am afraid of the fish touching me, they creep me out! I can’t imagine worrying about alligators, but I really think you don’t have to worry!

Your fears are legit but so are your rationalities. If the men weren’t going first and there weren’t 100 other women to eat, I’d say you’re toast. You’ll come out of that water with all limbs intact!

I have strange phobias: throwing up and caterpillars! Caterpillars make me run REALLY fast though when I see them!

I used to have a fear of flying long distances…I just did it last week and it was the BEST thing to ever overcome!! I hope you find the same thing with the swimming!!

I feel like I could’ve written the parts about open water swims and alligators. I am terrified of snakes and gators, and open water swims sound like torture to me. I don’t even like swimming in the ocean that much. It really is mental though.

Just remember that the noise will probably scare anything off!

Think of it this way – the faster you swim, the faster you will be out of the water! You’ll get a good time AND decrease you’re time spent with the gators. 🙂

My biggest fear is needles. I am a FREAK. When I got my wisdom teeth out, I had to take 4 Valium pills just so they could give me the IV. Even then, I was flipping out and I made them give me laughing gas as well. Also didn’t work. Finally I said just do it, and subsequently the nurse said “I’m not your mother but I’ll hold you anyway!” and squished my face into her boobs. The last thing I remember is saying to the dentist “Don’t hurt me okayyyyyy”…very slurred.

Also this year in my genetics class my professor mentioned how we were going to take blood samples from our finger for the lab we were doing. Before he got a chance to say it was voluntary, I started shaking, sweating buckets, and holding back years in the middle of my [college!] class. How am I ever going to give birth?!?!

the maple toasted quinoa is blowing my mind 🙂

That’s the best fear ever. It’s so cool how different countries/regions/areas have different animals they have to fear. And how exotic it seems to all us others.
The crowds of people always make me nervous…
But I’d totally be a little scared of alligators. But it’d be the least of my fears in a group of people.

My phobia? Sharks…definitely sharks.

Here’s the thing with the races: what you said is exactly true! There will be so many of you that no matter how the gator feels, he won’t stay close to a hundred swimmers. 🙂

It’s very easy to find yourself panicking when you start to think about the what if’s and the fears. In order to prevent my anxiety from rising, I play mind games. Whether it’s immediately stopping my thoughts and replacing them with others or coming up with things to focus on. What do you want to be thinking about in that water? Make a plan so you know what to turn your thoughts to!

As a Florida girl, I kno wwhat you mean. We have a big canal in our back yard and there are a couple of friendly neighborhood gators that live there. 😉 We see people jet skiing and even small boats with water skiers in it. We cringe, thinking that they might fall off their skis right next to one of the gators.
BUT for your race, it’s all mental. You will not be eaten by alligators!!!! 🙂 DEFINITELY not during the TRI. There will be so many people jumping and splashing into the lake that if any gators are present, they will be scared away. The race might also do a sweep the day before and the morning of the tri in a boat, just to make sure.
I would just be careful if you decide to practice in open water. If you are one person going into a lake, the gators are much less likely to be scared away. So perhaps check with the Tri or local websites about local “safe” lakes to practice your open water swim. I know that there are some bodies of water that do NOT have gators because there is no way for the gators to get there. The canal that I live on goes from the intracoastal to the everglades, so it makes sense. But certain lakes don’t cater to gators (haha it rhymes!) because they have no entry point or exit point.

Wow- no alligators where I come from. The thought didn’t even cross my mind until now! If I were you, I would be super super scared as well. For me, my issue is bears. Whenever I go hiking, I am terrified, and backpacking in the Smoky Mountains National Park caused a terrible panic attack that I would get eaten.

You’ll be fine though. It really is all mental.Just keep reminding yourself of those points you just made! good luck! :-/

I don’t think it’s wrong for you to freak out. I was born in Florida and was taught the same thing. The house we lived in before we moved up to Maryland was on a lake and we’d have to call “the alligator guy” so he could get it and make sure it wouldn’t harm my dog or me, for that matter, since I was only 8 at the time.
I used to have a phobia in deep pools about sharks or water moccasins coming out of the drains. Yes it was crazy, but it is in your head and you’re riht, you’re going to be with a lot of other people so no to fret!!! You’ll be fine 🙂

hahah, i was born and raised in south florida and i’m more afraid of sharks than gators! probably because i grew up by the ocean, not inland where there are gators.
you’ll be fine!!!!

Caitlin,
You should totally read about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I love it- its helped me a lot to work on my fears. And it seems that, without even knowing about it, thats the approach you take! It is all about coming up with rational responses to irrational thoughts- so good for anxiety and panic. Keep saying them to yourself in the water and you will be fine. Answer the crazy thoughts with the sane ones!
xoo

I am Terified of gators and roaches, i know that it is crazy to be scared of a roach but i have been my whole life. I have nightmares about gators, but i always went swimming in the lake anyway. I used to water ski and tube, but then one day we were swimming around the dock and when we got out this gator came swimming out from under the doc. It never bothered us, but i have only gotten in the lake a few times since then (almost 10 yrs ago) and you can bet i am not the first in the water. But i Have gotten better about it in the past year and will swim at the sandbar if other people are out there too and I do still swim in some ponds, springs and creeks but the water is cleaner and not as murky so i am not as scared. I live in South Ga so gators are pretty common here too. I understand where your fear is coming from, But i Am positive you will be fine with other people with you. Its not like its 3 or 4 people swimming, its going to be hundreds so you will be fine! I believe in you! I know you can do it!

HECK YES I WOULD BE SCARED!!! It makes me squirm just reading about it! I couldn’t get into waters that could be housing a gator! You’re one brave chick!

I would definitely be scared of gators tooo! All your reasons that they would probably be scared away are really legit though, just keep thinking positive thoughts. One of the tris I did was in a gross river and I was terrified of accidentally swallowing the nasty polluted water.

My biggest fear is car accidents. I’m afriad of being hit, hitting someone, or hitting a pedestrian. Years ago when I first got my license I was driving down a main road and some kid that was dibbling a ball lost the control of it and it went right in front of my car. Insticivly the kid runs out to get it THEN decides to look. I hit my breaks so damn hard and basically had a heart attack…I fear it will happen again. Luckily this fear is not dibilitating and I can drive, but I get anxious on busy higways.

Living in Florida I know exactly what you mean. I used to surf (attempt really) and whenever we were in the water we would count how may other surfers were there and say what our odds were if a we saw a shark. If it was just two of us it wasn’t good but even if there were only 10 other surfers our odds were only 10% that we would get eaten. It sounds crazy but it helped ease my mind… especially when there were lots of other surfers! With 100 other people your odds are only 1%! Does that help? Or did I freak you out some more?!?!?! 🙂

More of a question than a comment – and perhaps a silly one at that!!

For the toasted quinoa, do you cook the quinoa first in water (bring to a boil process), or do you toast it from it’s original form just after rinsing?

I live in San Diego and whenever I go into the ocean (especially if i’m sitting on a surfboard) I think some shark is going to grab my leg and bite it off. This actually happened a year and a half ago when a swimming group was training about 2 miles from the coast in the ocean and a tiger shark (great white?) attacked one of the swimmers… :/ scarryy!

Think about this, you just need to swim faster than the slowest swimmer. 🙂 My husband would tell me that when we would go camping with a group of people and I was scared of grizzlies. He said, “Babe, you just need to run faster than the slowest person.” I thought, “Hey, I can do that!” And you can do. You will do great! 😉